Global automakers have been setting up R&D shops in Silicon Valley since the dot-com boom days of the 1990s. Now one industry group is also tapping the region's startup scene, bringing together Valley-based auto company representatives to hear as many as 100 pitches a year on technology to change the driving experience.

That R&D trend has accelerated in the last two years, with auto titans like Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. operating research arms in the Valley. Add to that Google's in-house self-driving car team, Elon Musk's Tesla Motors operation and ongoing research at Stanford, and the auto world has never been more enmeshed with Silicon Valley technology.

Liz Kerton seized on this trend, specifically the rise of "connected cars" equipped with Internet access, to found the Autotech Council in 2012 in Silicon Valley.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Kerton discusses the group's genesis, new areas for auto/tech collaboration and the mission to connect old-school car companies with VCs and entrepreneurs.

Why establish the Autotech Council at this phase in the auto migration to Silicon Valley?

I'm also the president of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley, and the Autotech Council started as sort of a spin-off of that group. The Telecom Council was started in 2000 basically responding to the need of the large telcos coming into the Valley.

They were coming to try and scout innovation, work with startups, work with VCs. They were not companies that had experience working with fast-moving and very limber startups. When we hit the connected car topic, it became obvious that there were a lot of car companies that were doing the same thing.

How do you connect those different stakeholders?

The Autotech Council meets every month. These are business meetings. In the room we will have Honda and Toyota and Nissan and Volkswagen. They will all be there listening to the same idea, the same entrepreneur.

That’s kind of where we stop. We step back and say we’ve done this introduction for you. Most of the deals happen afterwards. We see 60-100 startups per year, who come to us though council members or VCs or our own digging.

How much competition is there with that kind of group pitch meeting?

In other places, the (auto company) executives won't have a meeting at Starbucks because their competitor could hear them. Silicon Valley is very collaborative. The car guys are not great at it yet. Certainly the ones who have been here longer are better at it, but they’re trying hard.

The group was also founded to help auto tech innovations get to market faster, correct?

There is a disconnect. It takes 4 years plus to go from design to production on a product. That’s pretty much the lifespan of a startup. The car companies need to be careful that the tech they’re putting into their 2018 models is going to have legs and still be around in five years.

How important is it to be first to market with a new technology?

The car companies know that if they’re going to get a technology that no one else has, that is a short-lived differentiation. No one is going to try to lock up a startup with a clause that says you can only work with me. A startup if they don’t have any other customers isn’t going to be around.

This is not a market where you’re going to win by being different. It’s a market where you’re going to win by being early. If you can beat someone else to market by 6 months, that gives you the advantage that you need. You don’t need to have exclusivity. Also, if you put a BMW Guy in the room with a Kia Guy… they don’t consider themselves competitors. It’s not the same car buyer.

What about people who say the car is becoming one big consumer electronic device — that Silicon Valley could become a Detroit 2.0 for auto innovation?

People that say the car is just a consumer electronics device have overstepped. Sure, 20 years ago we bought our cars based on power and 0-60 speeds, and now consumer research shows they buy based on whether there is a port for their iPhone.

But it’s a semi-regulated industry. They have to worry about safety first and foremost. Those types of things I don’t see them really outsourcing in the near future — brake pads, tires, frames. The components of the car that make it a consumer electronic device, like the apps in the dashboard or rear-seat entertainment, those will come from Silicon Valley.

What other challenges are there for auto technology?

There is some meat to fact that car sharing is going to be part of the transportation landscape going forward. Are they totally impersonal because it’s not your space at all? Or if the car is driving itself, that space is more personal. You’re doing your makeup or shaving when before you were driving.

Data privacy is a big question. What is the data, what are the privacy and security concerns, what are the cool services they could offer? They don’t have the answer.

What new auto tech trends are you watching for?

There are healthcare applications. I think we’ll get a little burst of innovation in the next 12-18 months. Think of sensors in the steering wheel that know when you’re getting upset in traffic – your blood pressure is going up so pull off the road.

Another big intersection is going to be user interface. There are various ways of communicating with your car or with the network that are very safe for drivers. One of the things a lot of startups and even big companies are working on is a kind of artificial intelligence and 3-D display. You look through the windshield and you see pieces of information virtually on the hood.

How similar are car companies' approaches in Silicon Valley — do you see them changing?

Some of the guys who are here are just a one man show — an engineer doing scouting and taking good ideas sending them back to head office in Detroit. Some of them are doing labs and testing. There is also investing. Intel Capital earmarked $100 million for auto. GM ventures was launched with $85 million. BMW has a venture fund.

It’s absolutely growing, and speeding up I’d say. I know two (auto companies) that have come in in the past six months. I know one more that’s coming in Q4. We think there will be around 17 by the end of this year.